226 FOREST RESERVOIRS. 



by the hand of man, and so long as the forests are preserved the un- 

 derground flow will continue. 



Destroy the forest cover of the mountains and not only will the 

 surface streams be deprived of their summer flow, but the underground 

 supplies will no longer be replenished and wiil fail, and the desert 

 will resume its sway over the lands 'that were fertilized from the ex- 

 hausted underground sources. 



The original source was not underground. As you watch the ar- 

 tesian well you will realize that the beautiful drops that are thrown 

 up from below by an unseen power to sparkle in the sunshine have 

 not come up underground direct from the sea. They were at some 

 time evaporated from the ocean and carried in clouds to the mountains 

 and precipitated there. Now what checked them from rushing down 

 the mountain sides and back through stream and river to join again 

 the ocean from whence they came? 



Somewhere in their onward course they were stopped by some leafy 

 covering which held them until they were turned downward into the 

 earth. Then they percolated through some underground channel or 

 strata until they found a vent through the artesian well that has 

 brought them once more to the surface. 



If we allow our mountains to be deforested and permit the destruc- 

 tion of the undergrowth and foliage, the waters which should find 

 their way down into the earth to come up again in our wells will rush 

 down the steep and bare mountain slopes in torrents to the sea. Not 

 only our underground supplies but our surface supplies as well will 

 be gone, and aridity will overcome our fertile fields just as it has where 

 the forests have been destroyed. 



This need not happen and will not happen if the people will wake 

 up to the possibility and danger of loss of water supplies from forest 

 destruction. If we are to preserve the water we must preserve the 

 forests. 



The forces that are working the destruction of our forests are more 

 dangerous than a foreign foe, because more subtle. A shot fired from 

 a hostile battleship upon one of our seaboard cities would electrify the 

 people of the nation and rouse them to superhuman efforts for defense. 



Year by year our noble forests are being devastated by fire or 

 some other destructive agency and water sources which are the very 

 life of whole communities impaired or ruined and the great majority 

 of people pay no more heed to a forest fire than they would to a fall 

 Ing star in the heavens. 



